Angel in the Morgue
by jaimi-or-jaemi
Summary: Being an angel working in a morgue can be interesting. Part of the Unusual Household verse
1. Ellen

**TAGS/WARNINGS:** Molly Hooper, Supernatural Elements, Angel Molly, Self-Reflection, Ghosts, Death, Comfort, Original Character Death(s), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family

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The entire story is from Molly's POV

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She is humming as she cleans her lab, making sure it is ready for the next person to be brought to her.

Just as she finishes the last of the dusting, a young human wheels a gurney in and parks it in the waiting area.

"Ellen Gifford, fifteen years old, it is suspected that she died of cardiac arrest due to lifelong heart defects," the human states, summarizing the chart.

Nodding, she accepts the paperwork and signs at t he bottom that she has received Ellen and the time.

Without bothering to say goodbye the human turns and leaves.

"I'm not dead," she hears a soft voice cry out in denial. "I'm not! I was supposed to have my first date on Monday!"

Turning towards the voice, she spots the young woman standing beside the door, arms locked firmly around her body and tears filling her eyes.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but you are dead, your heart gave out," she gently explains.

"But you can see me! You are talking with me! If I was dead, you wouldn't be able to do that!" the young woman sobs.

Walking over to her, she lays a hand lightly on her arm and leads her to the small office attached to the back. "I am an angel of death, Ellen, I can see everyone who dies, and I know how they died just by looking at them. Your death was natural," she reveals, focusing on giving off a comforting aura. "Your heart has always been weak, and your health has always been poor, I can see that the doctors tried to help, but you must have known there were still dangers?"

Tears run down the young woman's face, her lips trembling as she listens.

"Despite your health you have lived a full life, doing and trying far more than most I have seen. Look at it, remember," she continues softly, "You were loved, cherished, and will be sorely missed, but this was always a possibility."

"I don't want to leave," Ellen whimpers, shaking her head and continuing to cry.

Hugging the girl, she lightly strokes her back, as she continues to sooth and encourage her, "I know it is scary, that you want to stay, but I promise that things are better. You can choose whether to stay in the next life or be born again to another life. You can see your family again, and will be reunited with them in the next life. Your soul is young, this is its first life experience, you have so many choices before you, but first you have to let go. You have to go to the next life."

"But my family, I didn't get to say goodbye, or go on that date or any other number of things I dreamed of doing," the teenager whines.

"Oh Ellen, that's life, I'm an angel, I have lived hundreds of human lives and there are still things I have never done, things I am still learning, and new experiences I am still having. There is always something more," her hand lightly strokes the girl's back, "I promise, you will have a chance to do it. While if you are reborn, there is a very low chance of you remembering your previous lives, your soul will still remember the experiences between lives and you will still have your families from each life."

"What if I don't want to be reborn?" Ellen whispers, leaning into her.

"Then you stay in the afterlife, you can watch others if you want or live out a life within the afterlife, though time is so very different there." She answers, happy that the teenager is starting to consider moving on. "There is even a chance that your soul will call to another, and you will find your perfect match."

Timidly, the ghost asks, "But I don't want sex."

"Oh sweetheart, not every match is sexual. Some are the deepest of friendships, bonds closer than family between them over several different lifetimes. Some are the deepest of romantic ties, they may or may not have physical reactions. Some are sexual, with the best part of their match being between them physically. And rarely, so very rarely there are some that are all three," she reassures the ghost. "Have you heard of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson?"

"Yes," Ellen answers hesitantly, uncertainty filling her.

"Sherlock is a vampire, this is his first life, John, is a werewolf, this is his fifth life. The two of them are perfect matches in all three ways, it is amazing, simply amazing, because wolfs and vampires are nearly never matched, but John kept coming back, through various lives just to see if he could find his match." She tells the ghost, remembering the first time she had looked at the pair and seen their pasts, or more exactly John's past.

"Has John always been a wolf?" the ghost inquire curiously, her hesitation starting to fade.

"Three of his five lives he has been a wolf, twice from the same bloodline," she answers with a smile.

"I, I could have someone who wants me for me? Not for what Iook like or sex in a future life? I could be healthy?"

Nodding encouragingly, "You could."

Glancing down, the teenager mumbles, "How do I move on?"

"Accept your death, and when you have, just take my hand," she replies, "I will guide you."

"Can," Ellen starts before pausing for a breath, "Can I go see my family one last time?"

"Yes sweetheart, you can, but remember, they won't be able to see or hear you," she motions to the other room where the teens body is laying, "I can come with you or stay and start to prepare you for your family to say goodbye."

"Will you come with me?" the hesitation is back, along with fear and sadness.

She simply smiles, "Whenever you are ready."

"Right now, before I lose my nerve," Ellen tells her.

Quietly she stands and the teen quickly stands as well. Laying her hand against the ghost's face, she instructs, "Think of who you wish to bid farewell and we shall go to them first."

Nodding slightly, the girl's eyes close and she focuses, a moment later they have moved to another part of the hospital, a large group of people are gathered together, many crying, all of them comforting each other.

As soon as they appear, Ellen rushes over to her mother and hugs, arms wrapping around her even though she cannot actually touch her. She does that with most of her family members, telling each of them something that she doesn't listen to. After she has bid each goodbye, she returns to her side.

"I'm ready," Ellen declares firmly, "I, I want that, a platonic mate, a person who will be my best friend through several lives, a perfect match."

Offering a hand, she smiles warmly, "Then be at peace, Ellen, and accept."

While the ghost is still sad, she is determined and has decided it is time, slowly but staidly she accepts her hand. Warmth spreads from her to the ghost, as the gate between this life and the next opens. Not long after that, the girl vanishes, a whispered thanks leaving her lips.

Vanish, she returns to the morgue in order to continue on her tasks, happy about how smoothly that had gone.


	2. Family and Friends

Humming, she gently cleans and prepares the now empty body before her. She has already managed to guide the ghost of Miss Ellen Gifford into the afterlife. Thankfully this young lady had died of illness and not of violence, while it was still saddening, it was better than those who die of violent crimes. Actually, Ellen had been mostly prepared for her death since it had loomed over her for the majority of her life, making the guiding easier.

She hopes that Ellen is able to come back and find her perfect match and that she gets a chance to find her again. She always likes when she comes across souls she has guided to the afterlife and their new lives are pleasant or joyful. Even better are those souls that find their matches and she gets a chance to see them together knowing that her part in the process had helped it to happen.

Some would be surprised to find an angel in a morgue if they knew what she is. Even other angels are surprised when they come across her, discovering her working and living as a human. Yet she has chosen this sort of life, working close with the dead in a human form, for nearly three thousand years. Very few lives have not included working around the dead. As an angel of death, she has always thought working around the dead works well with her talents and gifts. After all, her purpose in existing is to help the dead cross to the afterlife, where better than where the dead nearly always go because when they first die they do not wish or cannot leave their bodies.

When she is done cleaning the young woman, she performs the autopsy even though she does not have to since she knows exactly how Ellen died. However, it is her human job, and she does play the part of a human so very well.

Currently there are only six people beside other angels that know what she is to her knowledge.

The first is her daughter Indira, a vampire that has been alive for over two thousand years. She had found the little girl in a village laid to waste by barbarian raiders and plague, there were no other survivors for miles and she had taken one look at the precious child and decided then and there to save her. That had been the first time she had lived as human, rather than drifting from place to place doing her tasks as a death angel. The early years had been difficult because she had not known anything about caring for a child, let alone caring for a vampire child who required blood to survive. Thankfully, she had managed somehow, with the help of a vampire she ran into one night while trying to figure out what her little girl needed since regular food was not working. Now, thousands of years later she is still close to Indira, and has known most of her daughter's descendants over the generations, even though they do not realize what she is, and simply think she is an ancient vampire. She had even lived as her daughter's child on a few occasions when she had restarted her human life, much to Indira's amusement.

The second is her child Jaime, a gender fluid vampire she had found in a river, cold and shivering, nearly dead from exposure to the elements and lack of blood. Thankfully, she had still remembered all of the lessons learned with Indira and was able to easily care for the little one. Zir first life span had been lived as a boy, as had zir second and third, but by the sixteen-hundreds, zie had switched to living as a woman or without gender. Currently zie is living gender free again, to date Jaime has not produced any known offspring, preferring knowledge and friendship to romance and physical attraction. Zie often stops in for random visits and spends a lot of time with his sister.

The third who knows what she is is her son Keung, an attractive cherry tree nymph with a winning personality. By the time she had found him, ill and dying in his birth mother's arms from a blight killing the trees and those tied to them, she had lived among the humans and other races for nearly three-thousand years and understood what was happening. His birthmother had been beyond her ability to save, but she had guided her to the afterlife after speaking with the nymph and reassuring her that she would care for her son. Keung had been the easiest of her children to raise. While she does not see him as often as her vampire children, he still calls and emails her regularly, sending her updates on his life and the groove he has founded for nymph children without homes or families.

The fourth that knows what she is is Mycroft Holmes. He had watched her guiding several different people through to the afterlife and had asked her about it during a mission where he had nearly died. That was fifteen years before, now they are friends, occasionally lovers, often confidants. He promised to keep her secret when he discovered that she worked within the human world, and to her knowledge he always has.

The fifth person is Greg Lestrade, a rather interesting human who she decided to trust after watching the way he spoke to a dying man, easing his way into the afterlife. He had been shocked and confused at first, particularly when she showed him her true form. They had dinner following, and a long talk. Come to find out that had been his first introduction to the supernatural world. He had heard rumors and myths but never believed them, so having an angel tell him about the races had made him believe. She had introduced him to Mycroft and smiled as she watched the sparks between them. They were also friends, occasional lovers, and confidants. Not long after that, the human had gone into law enforcement. Thankfully, he does not question her when she tells him that people have been murdered and has assisted her in getting justice for some that otherwise would not receive it.

The last person to know what she is is Anthea, her real name is Asteria and she is distantly related to her daughter Indira. While Anthea is mostly a nymph and lives as a nymph, she has vampire and dryad blood as well. She had introduced the nymph to Mycroft and smiled as the two of them formed a quick friendship, a deep friendship, not quite a matched friendship but so very close. Now the nymph works for the vampire and the two of them occasionally visit, often share information and protect their little family.

Smiling, she continues to hum to herself as she places the body into storage so that it can be honored by Ellen's family. Human have such odd death rituals now a days, and so many variety of death rituals depending on culture.

Over the years she has raised twenty-five children herself, though only three of them are immortals. She has had children from nearly every race. Past the ones she has raised herself, she has also found homes for many others, though none of them had known what she was. She had lived her life as a human, often making herself appear to be older and age. Before she would 'die' she would select a new home and lay the groundwork for them.

At this point she has not had a child within the last fifty years. As far as her son Philip knows, she died in her sleep when he was forty-five. Occasionally she still checks in with him, though he does not know that since she goes in her angel form which is invisible to humans until the moment of their death unless she wills them to see her.

Perhaps it is time for her to find her next child, she has been lonely lately or maybe she should take some time to go visit her immortal children.

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